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Stotts: Trail Blazers will revisit how they guard Curry

16 May 2019 01:48

The Portland Trail Blazers are re-evaluating their defensive strategy against Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.

Portland sunk their big men instead of trapping on pick-and-rolls, which led to the Warriors knocking down 51.5 per cent of their three-point attempts in a 116-94 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday.

Curry picked apart the Trail Blazers in the victory, scoring 36 points on nine-of-15 shooting from behind the arc.

Portland coach Terry Stotts was asked if the team were planning to make adjustments when he met with reporters on Wednesday.

"I think we have to re-think it," Stotts said, via ESPN.

"But, we were down six going into the fourth quarter and Steph had one basket in the fourth quarter. They scored 39 in the fourth quarter without him scoring one basket in the pick-and-roll.

"So, it goes beyond that, but yes, we have to revisit what we want to do on pick-and-rolls."

Stotts' comments came one day after he was unhappy with a reporter for asking him about the team potentially changing their defense following Game 1. Stotts apologised at his news conference on Wednesday.

Klay Thompson added 26 points for Golden State in the win while five Portland players reached double figures in the losing effort.